Mitsubishi cuts back small-car variants

No performance models for new Mirage range.

Mitsubishi cuts back small-car variants

24 May 2012Jonathan Hawley

Anyone expecting the new Mitsubishi Mirage to spawn a raft of performance and lifestyle variants based on its new platform is likely to be disappointed.

Unlike the current Colt - which has been available in hardtop convertible and Ralliart turbo versions - the Mirage is likely to stick to its roots of being affordable, and offering low-cost motoring via low fuel consumption.

According to Takashi Sato, project manager in charge of Mitsubishi Global Small Car (what we call Mirage), the new tiddler was designed with simplified engineering that has negated the idea of creating performance or even small SUV variants.

“I would like to emphasise that this model is very different from the previous vehicle,” he said.

“We have developed this vehicle that can be accepted by as many customers as possible. For this car we made it so it can be accepted by people in the whole world. That is fundamental concept for this vehicle and in order to do that we have simplified the structure of the chassis as much as possible.

“So therefore this car cannot have four-wheel-drive and this car will not have a four-cylinder version. We only have a three-cylinder 1.2 or 1.0 litre. We do not make another variant.”

Mr Sato said the new Mirage was designed to appeal to both emerging countries and mature markets, so Mitsubishi had concentrated on fundamental engineering principals such as saving weight in the simplified platform to make it affordable and keep fuel consumption low.

“It is a new direction for Mitsubishi. In a previous time Mitsubishi has introduced lots of new technology such as GDi [direct fuel injection] where we were first in the world, and a lot of technology for the 4WD.

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“This time we are seeking a different direction without lots of expensive technologies and we put a lot of effort into the fundamentals of the technology, and we arrived with low cost and low fuel consumption.”

That means there will be no diesel variant of the Mirage, although the Colt was available in Europe with a diesel engine.

“We will not install a diesel engine in this vehicle,” Mr Sato said.

Perhaps surprisingly, Mr Sato could not confirm an electric version of the Mirage, which is known to be under development as a replacement for the Colt-based i-MiEV. Other Mitsubishi sources are adamant that instead of being a separate model like the i-MiEV, the new electric light car would simply be an extension of the Mirage range.

“We are considering [an electric Mirage], but have no actual plan,” he said.